Nice to see all the required grunting and pushing to get bolts out has been included. Other videos tend to just say ‘take this and that off’ without acknowledging that ‘this’ and ‘that’ won’t want to come off!
Always someone complaining maybe you should post a video of the correct procedures and how easily it comes off. I mean you must be a know it all or a master mechanic correct?
Aside from your ingenuous way of skipping steps like removing the brake caliper & bracket, rotor disc and the CV shaft.. it's mind blowing that the shop wanted to charge me upwards of $600 for this job LOL! Thank you for this video my friend! Definitely deserves a Like from me!
Wow! That is a huge compliment. I appreciate your feedback. I learned to work on cars out of necessity because I had no money when I was first married. I had a belt go bad on one of the vehicles we owned and I had no clue what to do because I had no money. So I had to figure out how to fix it on my own. You can save yourself a ton of money if you are able to most of your car work yourself.
Hey bud, thanks for the video... I recommend getting an inch diameter or so metal pipe that's 6 feet long, insert your breaker bar in and use that as an extension. You will get enough leverage to break loose any bolts that way.
Awesome video but I would feel a little bit better if you had the tires you took off under the car in case the car slides off the jack stands on accident. Or maybe some blocks with the jack stands set just a hair lower than the jack stands in case the car falls off the jack stands it lands on the blocks. Thank you so much! This helped me a lot! I have the whole hub off so I'm doing this from the side of the car instead of underneath it because I took the whole thing off to have the bearings pressed and noticed the boot on the ball joint was looking pretty close to tearing from dry rot or wear and tear. It actually wasn't too hard to do it with the hub completely off except the cotter pin I had to drill out and I recommend to anybody if it's old and it's really in there and rusty and possibly over 20 years old like mine which is a 96 and probably the original, Don't even bother trying to take it out just cut it as close as you can which I did with the drill right between the notches on the castle nut I use the drill to cut the cotter pin and then I used the drill to drill it out about halfway and then I punched it out with a nail. I wasted a bunch of time cutting a couple notches off trying to reach the eye hole and I had to use a hacksaw because that's all I have and then the eye tore and all I was using was needle nose pliers. Wasted over an hour when I should have just drilled it out and could probably reuse that castle nut if I wanted to with a new cotter pin. The only thing Left I was unsure of was how to get the old ball joint off because on the tie rod end I had to get a special tool and I was wondering if I needed a similar tool. I think they might have a polar that works as well but I'll either use that or the fork but good to know I can use the fork if I need to and that I don't need to press in the new ball joint.
@@BuildItSimple I've seen the shop acetylene torch come to the rescue, smokin cherry red hot too, but realize most punters don't poses this tool in their driveway!
I like the video and thanks. Gave it a thumbs up, but I think it would make sense to at least crack the nuts and bolt on the old ball joint before taking off the castle nut. I think it would be easier without the control arm free to move and it puts less stress on the control arm bushings if you crack them while everything is connected.
Yes, it is the same exact process. Don't be discouraged. These thing wear out. Most people just never change their ball joints when they should. Good luck with your repair.
@@mannamedbanjo Most of the reliable brands will come with a greasable fitting. Stick with known name brand for ball joints for sure. You can't really go wrong with Moog or ACDelco. I have good luck with these two brands. I have made the mistake and purchased cheap ball joints. They only last 1 year under normal driving conditions. I hope this helps.
I checked the ball joint and it looks fine but I have a clunking noise when stop and then when the car start moving. Is it too much play on the ball joint. The car is 2009 Toyota Corolla with 189k miles. Is it about time Ball Joint goes bad? Thanks in advance.
Ball Joints can go bad for various reason and at various mileage markers. There are many factors to it. Ball Joints are cheap enough where I would probably start there and then move to your next most likely options. For example: CV Shafts, Bearings.
I don't know where we went wrong but people should be greasing their ball joints (lmao) at least everytime they get an oil change. Forgetting to do these little things for preventative maintenance is the problem these days with cars breaking down all the time. yes planned obsolescence and cost cutting in modern manufacturing plays some into it but theres also just the standard routine for keeping your car in shape.
Thank you for the video. Can I tighten with the wrench instead of torque wrench? I have an 07Avalon. Getting a torque wrench on that castle nut looks tough
I'm having trouble with one of the securing nyloc nuts that secure it to the lower control arm the nut won't tighten or loosen its just spinning how do I overcome this please? The stud is stable it seems the nyloc is spinning in the thread.
Sorry for stupid question but what size is your pickle fork opening? I see a couple different sizes and don't want to order wrong one. Also, how are the AC Delco ball joints holding up? Every review has negatives about every brand of aftermarket ball joints, trying to see which brand hopefully will last.
Thanks for commenting. No stupid questions here man. I looked up the pickle fork I purchased from Oriellys and it says the opening is 24mm. It wasn’t very expensive (under $10) and I have used it for years. I have used it for projects that it wasn’t intended for and the opening is now a little wider than 24mm. It still works great though. I have always had good luck with AC Delco ball joints. I also think Moog is a great option. I have purchased cheaper ones and they don’t last near as long. I am not a race car driver so I am not very rough on my ball joints. You are right that every car part has negative reviews. Everyone treats their vehicles different. Thanks for the question. I hope this helps. Please reach out again with any more questions.
You do not need an alignment after changing your ball joints. If you remove the shocks, struts, control arm, or replace the tie rods you will need an alignment. Good luck with your repair.
Sorry for the delayed reply. At this point you will need to grind that bolt off. That's really easy to do. Just make sure you don't cut any of the control arm in the process. Note: Depending on the quality of blade you use to cut off the boll joint, you may need to buy a couple of cut off blades. The hardened metal of the ball joint will most likely rip through a cheap cut off blade. Also wear eye protection. Good Luck. Report back how it went.
@@BuildItSimple I'm a Pipefitter, I have all kinds of grinding discs and cut off wheels. Lol!! What I did tho is I removed the boot completely and exposed the inside of the ball joint. I then hit it good with some *brake clean* fluid, and it surprisingly knocked all that grease right off, right now!!! I then took a pair of 440s (channellocks) and held back up on the now ungreased inner ball joint and was able to finish removing the castle nut. I tried that method initially, but with all the grease on the inside of the ball joint, the channellocks couldn't get any bite. Im surprised at how great the brake clean worked. I had a busy day that day, and replaced both lower ball joints, both inner and outer tie rods, and had one day to do it as I made an appointment to get the car aligned after the new parts were installed. Get this, I got new tires in April, and they were bald on the outer edges with wire exposed by June. The tits are still on the tires and the inner part still looks brand new, so there was something way out of whack! Also there was loud clacking and popping during certain maneuvers or tire positions while driving. I had to call off 2 days of work and get everything ordered and set up beforehand. I also have 2 new lower control arms that came in the kit, but it was getting late in the day and I was worried I may not get them done in time, as I still had to install the new parts yet. I've still gotta order 2 front stabilizer links as mine are shot, but they're only $5 on Rock Auto and easy access. The kit I got was a Moog front end kit. It drives like a Cadillac now. Its just an old Camry, meant to be a work beater mileage eater. No sense in putting all those miles on my good vehicles. Sorry for the book, I enjoy passing tips or knowledge while gaining some back. Hopefully my comment helps someone else with the same issue.
Oh yeah. For sure. Especially if you are going to replace the old ball joint with a new ball joint. Just make sure you don't touch your CV shaft boot or anything else with that angle grinder. Good luck! I hope your repair goes well.
Since ball joints don't affect alignment, there is no need to get a wheel alignment after replacing. If you plan on replacing your tie rods, your shocks, or something that messes with alignment, then you will need to get your front end aligned. I hope this helps.
You don’t need to take the Axle nut off to do this replacement. And the Castle nut on this car was a 17mm. If you have a basic set of metric wrenches, you should be fine.
Are the lower ball joints more common to go out over the uppers? Most videos only show lower and rock auto only sells lower ball joints. But autozone has uppers.
Jack your car up , grab top of tire and bottom of tire and push at top , pull at bottom several times , if you have movement , you need new ball joints
For me it was as simple as going over a bump in the road slowly. Every ball joint I have ever had that was bad I could tell it was bad by doing that. Driving in the grass at a slow speed is also a good way to tell if the ball joint is bad. It will sound kind of like a small hammer hitting a piece of metal. Not super loud, but you can tell something is loose.
Hondas have press in ball joints. Its a very similar process except you have to have press in and out your ball joints. Your local auto supply store rents these presses all the time and they are pretty cheap. I hope this helps.
@@Jj-gi2uv I have owned 3 Subaru vehicles. They are fun cars but they required so much work that they taught me and forced me to be constantly working on them. The head gaskets failed on all 3 of my Subaru vehicles. Now that I own a couple of Toyota's, I am not sure that I would go to anything else.
I would say that you might need to use some sort of bottle jack to push your control arm. If they absolutly won't move or are stuck, then you might need to remove your lower control arm to get the ball joint in. I hope this helps.
